The CEOs of the three largest US banks by assets made the pledges Wednesday at a House Financial Services Committee hearing. They spoke in response to a question from Blaine Luetkemeyer, a Republican congressman from Missouri, about whether they were prepared to withdraw their investments from China in the event of a military attack on Taiwan. “We will follow the instructions of the government, which has been cooperating with China for decades. If they change their position, we will change it immediately, just like we did in Russia,” said Brian Moynihan, BofA’s chief executive. His comments were echoed by Jane Fraser and Jamie Dimon, the chief executives of Citi and JPMorgan, respectively. Dimon evoked a sense of patriotism in his response. “We would absolutely welcome and follow what the American government said, which is all of you, what you want us to do,” he told the committee. US banks have responded to international condemnation of the Kremlin following its attack on Ukraine by announcing plans to end their operations in Russia. However, China’s economy is much larger than Russia’s, and many banks have tried to expand their Chinese operations. At the end of 2021, Citi had $27.3 billion worth of exposure in China, including loans and securities, five times more than it had in Russia. JPMorgan in 2011 launched a securities joint venture in China and just last year took full ownership of it. Oppenheimer banking analyst Chris Kotowski said China has “always been seen as a future growth opportunity” for banks and current geopolitical risks may make them more cautious about how much they invest in the country. “If you’re a CEO and you’re testifying before Congress, and the question is basically, ‘What if China is the next Ukraine?’” it makes you want to go very slowly, very deliberately, and make sure you don’t there are too many funds exposed there at the moment,” Kotowski said. Multinational companies have grown increasingly concerned about the possibility of a conflict in Taiwan in the past 18 months as China has stepped up military activity around the island. Company executives asked security experts in Washington to brief on the possibility of a Sino-US war over Taiwan. In March 2021, Admiral Philip Davidson, then head of the US Indo-Pacific Command, told Congress that he believed China could attack Taiwan by 2027, sparking widespread concern. President Joe Biden said on Sunday that the US would send forces to defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack – his fourth warning in the past year and a policy shift that underscored the growing threat to the island from China. The Chinese military has increased the number of fighter and bomber exercises it conducts within Taiwan’s “air defense reconnaissance zone” over the past two years.

In August, the People’s Liberation Army held dramatic large-scale military exercises that included the launch of ballistic missiles over Taiwan for the first time since Nancy Pelosi became the first Speaker of the House to visit Taipei in 25 years. China has accused the US of undermining its “One China” policy, which has been in place since the countries normalized relations in 1979 and Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing. Under the policy, the US recognizes Beijing as the government of China, while only recognizing – without endorsing – the Chinese position that Taiwan is part of China. Pressed by lawmakers to voice support for Taiwan and condemn alleged human rights abuses in China, U.S. bank executives hesitated to address the countries by name. “I believe in free democracy everywhere. I am not going to comment specifically on Taiwan. It is up to the US government to make such statements,” Dimon said. “‘Condemnation’ is a very strong word,” Fraser said, before adding that the bank was “upset” to see human rights abuses happening “anywhere in the world”. Additional reporting by Imani Moise in New York